Almost Gone
by Fate's Child
Summary: This story is about what would happen if Rei's father showed up? *status: complete*


I'm back with another story. This one isn't one of my best, but I think it's okay. Read on, please, it's not that long. I would just like to ask that anyone who knows a good story about Serena (Usagi) running away from her Senshi responsibilities or anything like that, please send me the name and the address where I can get it. Would be greatly appreciated. If anyone cares, there is a great story out there called Soul Mates that is along this line. I loved it.   
Disclaimer: I finally gave up on trying to give her my brother and settled for my brother and his cat. Well, she still wouldn't give.  
******** Almost gone********  
*******Ash Ujigami*********  
I am a 17 year old girl known as Hino Rei in Japan, but in America I am known as Rei Hino. I am the sailor senshi of the planet Mars and I am sworn to defend the princess of the Moon, Serena, or here in Japan, Usagi. Everything was pretty normal (as normal as life can be when you are fighting alien creatures from the Nega-verse), until a two weeks ago when my Grandfather got sick. You see, my mother and younger brother both died when I was 7 years old. My mother died during child birth and my brother died two days after birth. My father thought it was my fault. Yes, my father, a businessman, loved to see life as a big picture, and I was just a little part. He sent me off to this boarding school and that, until Grandpa Hino saw me one day. He originally came to visit, but when he saw how utterly miserable I was, he offered to let me come live with him. I graciously accepted, partly to spite my father because him and grandpa never got along, and I have been living at the Cherry Hill temple ever since. Anyway, Grandpa got sick two weeks ago and exactly 8 days and 13 hours ago, he passed on. I got his funeral ready quickly and the ceremony, preformed by your truly, just ended. My friends were paying their respects when I saw the figure that I hadn't seen in 12 years. My father.  
"Rei, honey, it's been a long time." He tried to embrace me, but I resisted.  
"Name your business, and leave, you're not welcome here." I responded coldly.  
"Rei, honey, pack your things, we are moving to Singapore." He smiled. WE? Nope, no way. WE are not going anywhere. You can pack all the bags you want and move your ass wherever the hell YOU want, but there is no way in hell I am leaving. Besides, Singapore is free of crime, why would they need Sailor Mars?  
"We are not going anywhere. You can leave, but I am not going anywhere, much less Singapore with YOU." I punctuated the you part.   
"I am your father and you will do what I tell you to."  
"You, a man who has never even come to visit me, much less write to me in the last 12 years, is telling me that I have to move to Singapore? I don't think so!" Rei yelled.  
"I am your father and you will respect me!"  
"I am 17 years old and I will not respect a man who cares nothing for me!"   
"You will respect me!" He raised his hand as if to slap me, "I AM YOUR FATHER!"  
I realized that if he hit me, I couldn't block him in my ceremonial cloths. Shit. But as he brought his hand down Lita's arm intercepted his hand.   
"You got a problem with Rei?" She asked.  
"You, stay out of this. This is not your business. GET OUT OF THE WAY!" He yelled when Lita didn't budge.   
"You will not, no let me rephrase that, you will never lay a finger on her you hear? NEVER! Or you're going to have a problem with ALL of her friends, and believe me pal, that's a lot of people." Lita said as she released his hand and took put her arm around my shoulder.  
"You ok, Rei?" She asked.  
"Yea, you really gave him something to be angry about." I smiled, "But thanks." I looked behind me to see my fuming father walking off in the other direction. Serena ran up to me.   
"Hino Rei! Gomen nasi about grandpa." She gave me a hug but the urgency in her voice told me that there was something attacking Tokyo and the senshi were needed A.S.A.P. or sooner.   
I pulled her aside.   
"Where?"  
"The park." She whispered. "I'm sorry Rei, I know it couldn't have come at a worse time."  
"That's ok." I said, "besides, I need something evil and slimy besides my father to take out." I smiled. "Let's do it."  
*********  
It was a purple monster this time. Kind of a cross between a monkey and a squirrel. These Nega-Verse creeps have come up with some of the weirdest combinations that I have ever seen. This one was not only going to die, but it was going to get a severe physical beating from me. I was angry and needed something to take my anger out on. As the creature gave one last agonizing cry, it fell and became moon dust. As we were about to de transform, Lita was looking around to see if there was anyone to witness us, she came back in a hurry and pulled me aside.   
"Rei, your father is in the park calling your name. He says that he saw you come in here and wants to talk to you now. He also said something along the lines of me not being here to save you now. Lets de transform and talk to him."  
"No, I am now sailor Mars and he can talk to her and Sailor Jupiter." She took my arm and looked at the other senshi. "You guys de transform and go back to the temple. Cover for us, we got something to do." With that, she and I walked in the direction of her father.   
*********  
"HINO REI! YOU CAN NOT HIDE IN HERE FOREVER AND NOW YOUR LITTLE FRIEND IS NOT HERE TO SAVE YOU, SO COME OUT AND TALK TO YOUR FATHER!"  
Sailor Jupiter and Mars had jumped up one side of a tree and now sat on the branches facing Rei's angry father. Jupiter jumped down.   
"If I were your daughter, I wouldn't come just because you were yelling like that."  
"Who the hell are you?"   
"I am the senshi of a far off planet called Jupiter." I jumped down.   
"And I am the senshi of the planet of Mars and we would like to have a word with you."  
"I thought you senshi were just a myth." Rei's father said in disbelief, "But no matter, I want to talk to my daughter, not you."  
"You know about us then?" Jupiter asked. My father shook his head in the 'yes' motion.   
"Then you know that we posses certain powers that we can call upon if you act hostile."  
"I came here to talk to my daughter."  
"And maybe you will," Mars stated, "but we want to know why first, seeing as that we senshi owe her one."  
"I want her to move to Singapore with me."  
"Why?" Mars asked, trying to control her temper. "Why should she leave everything that she has here to go to Singapore with you? She has friends here and a job to do and I've hung around the temple before pal, and you're not around."   
"I want to help raise her. After her mother died, I never got the chance to and I want another. I loved her and still do with all my heart, but her grandfather took her away from me when she was six and I couldn't do a thing."  
"Liar," Jupiter growled. "Let me tell you what I think happened. You wanted a boy and out came Rei. You made do with her and then found out that your wife was pregnant with a son and were ecstatic. She and the child died in birth and you blamed the young Rei. In fact, I am willing to bet two things. One, that her grandfather saved what little chance she had from recovering from whatever you said to her and that two, she doesn't and won't go with you." Mars put a hand on Jupiter's arm to calm her. Jupiter was the only other senshi to have a temper like fire she mused to herself. But the closeness of Jupiter's words amazed her. She never told anyone about that, yet somehow Lita knew.  
"You are right. I did blame her." My father laughed. "And now I know that she had friends here and want to take her away from them, to a place that she doesn't know and I want her to grow up feeling the loneliness that I have felt since loosing her mother. It is and was her fault."  
"Well, Mr. Hino, I am going to tell you what to do. You know all the planets?" Jupiter asked him. He shook his head in an affirmative response. "Name them."  
"Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Uranus, Mercury, Neptune, Saturn, Pluto, Earth and the Moon."  
"Very good," Jupiter replied a deadly calm. "Now, if you ever try to take away Rei against her own wishes, the guardians of all these planets will be on you like a lightning follows thunder." She said letting a bolt of lightning dance on her fingertips for emphasis. "Understood?"  
He shook his head.  
"You may think that you can push other people around, but you can not push me around like this. She is my daughter and by law, I will have her." Jupiter laughed.  
"You really don't know a lot about us do you?" My father shook his head no. "We have saved the asses of a lot of those law men and we can have our way because they owe us their lives. And besides, who wants to have twelve senshi with extreme powers breathing down their necks? No one." She answered her own question. "So if you want to take Rei, we will stop you. You don't deserve a daughter like her." I looked at Jupiter. She was known for her quick temper, but I had never heard such passionate words come out of her mouth. 'you don't deserve a daughter like her.' I smiled and nodded my head as she looked at me. We turned our backs on my father's gapping face and walked away.   
*****************  
When we got back to the temple, most everyone had gone home. Except for Chad.   
"Rei, where were you?" he asked in a worried tone. "After you finished the ceremony, I saw you and Lita talking to some guy. Then Serena approached you and you were gone." He lowered his head in embarrassment and stole a quick glance in Lita's direction. "I was worried about you."   
"Well Chad, I just needed to think." I lied. Why did he look at Lita? Was he embarrassed around her? I smiled. I could tell that Chad liked me, but I just didn't know how to approach that problem yet.   
"Who was the man? He looked like he was going to hit you." Chad asked in a sad tone.   
"That man, Chad, was my father and he wanted me to go away with him. I told him no." I quickly added. Chad's head shot up, fire in his eyes.  
"Your father? I'll kill him if he ever lays a finger on you." He said angrily. Lita gave him a pointed look. Something was going on.   
"You guys have something to tell…" I was in the middle of the question when Chad gave a slightly angry and scared look behind me. My father? I refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing me turn around. Lita just looked at the ground, not even noticing the conversation had stopped. Someone was a little guilty.   
"Can I help you sir?" Chad asked. "The temple is closed right now and you must leave. We were in the middle of a conversation as you could see and if you would please leave it would be greatly appreciated." Chad looked behind me and then at me. I guess that my father wasn't moving. I was going to make him leave. Without looking to make sure it was my father, I whirled around and slapped the "man" on the cheek, hard.   
"Rei, don't it's just…" Lita warned as she saw who it was. Too late, whoops. "…Haruka." She finished.  
"Geez Rei, you slap hard." Haruka said looking at me. "If I had known you were that in depth in your conversation, I wouldn't have interrupted."  
Haruka and Michiru stood behind me.   
"Haruka. Michiru." I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I realized what I had done. "Haruka, I am so sorry. You ok?" She flashed me a devilish grin.   
"Aren't I always?" I smiled. Lita had left as soon as soon as I finished the slap to get some ice. I looked at Chad who looked beyond confused.  
"Chad, these are friends of mine. Ten'ou Haruka and Kaiou Michiru, meet Chad." Chad shook their hands awkwardly.   
"Sorry about yelling earlier." He said as Lita returned with an ice bag. She handed it to Haruka.   
"You'll need this." Haruka put it to her face.   
"I thought that you were in Kamakura visiting Hotaru's dad." I said.   
"We were," Michiru replied, "but then Serena informed us that Grandpa was sick a few weeks ago and we came back as soon as we heard that he had passed on. I'm so sorry Rei." I thought about what she had said. I hadn't told anyone that Grandpa was sick until last week. I gave her a pointed look.  
"You're lying." I said. She turned red. "Haruka? Want to tell me what is going on?" Haruka only looked at Michiru. Michiru looked guilty. Just a little. The light of understanding dawned.   
"Michiru, were you spying on us? On me? Do you not trust us to tell you when something important comes up?"   
"Rei," Haruka said calmly, "How would we spy on you?" I thought about it for a minute. Then Lita and I said at the same time,   
"The MIRROR!" We forgot that Chad was there. "You put the mirror with us to spy on what we were doing didn't you?!" I asked.   
"Kami-sama, Haruka, you guys don't trust us at all." Lita piped in.   
"You'd think that if the fate of the world depends on it then WE'D TELL YOU!" I yelled. I think that physiatrists would describe that as snapping. I finally broke. I took out all the anger about my father and them not trusting us and everything wrong with the world on them with that one sentence. Everyone was looking at me. There were four people looking at me. Shit, I thought, I forgot about Chad.  
"Huh?" was all he said. Michiru put an arm around me and gave a look at Haruka who in turn gave a look to Lita. Lita nodded and they grabbed Chad by the arms and led him in the temple.   
"You guys?" I said when I figured out what they were going to do. They turned around. "I trust him so be nice." They nodded and took a still confused Chad back into the temple.  
********************  
I walked into the temple with Michiru as soon as I had calmed down. Chad looked at me and then Michiru.  
"So you're Sailor Mars?" I nodded. "And you're Sailor Neptune." It was more of a statement then a question. "Rei, how come you never told me? Out there you said that you trusted me but you never told me. Why?" Haruka and Michiru left to wait outside and Lita made the motion to go also, but I held a hand out in the motion to stay.  
"It wasn't a matter of trusting you or not, Chad. It was a matter of your safety. If anything were to happen to you, I would never forgive myself. There were just to many things to take into consideration." I hesitated. "I… I care for you Chad. A lot. And as much as I wanted to tell you, if I had given into that feeling and lost you because of my duties, I couldn't deal with it." It was not often that I showed my feelings, but I felt that this was one of the times. "I only told grandpa as he lay on his death bed. It was for everyone's safety that this is kept a secret. I meant it when I said that I trusted you. Please, don't tell anyone." He nodded. "Now, this is what I wanted Lita here for. First, I know that something had been going on between you two involving me, but that later. This is about my father, my past, which no one but grandpa knew.  
"Lita, you, I don't know how, but you were right. My father desperately wanted a boy and all he got was me. So he made do. But then, my mother became pregnant with a son and my father was ecstatic. When she had the baby, however, she died. My brother died a few days after word. My father blamed this all on me. He said that I could have died instead of either one of them. That I should have been the one to die. And from that day forward he barely talked to me. A month after this had happened, he sent me off to this boarding school and that, until grandpa saved me. In short he is back to make my life a living hell." I sat back. Chad was smoldering. So was Lita. If my father ever came back I think they would argue over who would get to hit him first. Just then Michiru knocked.  
"Come in." I said and sat up strait.   
"Was there a senshi meeting tommorow?" She asked. I nodded. "We'll be there, Hotaru even. But for now, we'll go. I have a concert tonight." We said our good byes and Lita got up to leave.   
"If you two stop by in an hour and a half, I'll have dinner ready." I graciously accepted for both me and Chad. Someone who was willing to miss a dinner made by Lita was insane.  
*******  
We were on the way to Lita's when I decided to ask Chad a question that had been bothering me for the past hour.  
"What's going on with you and Lita?" He blushed.   
"Well, you see, she was helping find a way to, um, we, uh, ask you out." I smiled.  
"I'd love to." Chad just smiled and put an arm around my waist. I sighed while leaning my head of his shoulder.   
The End   
All done with this one, too. Well, I guess that that'll be it for a while… I need to concentrate on school. But by the time I get my lazy a@# to post this, I may be ready to write some more. Like always, E-mail me at Ummeinoko@aol.com OR Slrranchan@aol.com. I will e-mail you back. Had to have Haruka and Michiru in there, no matter how spontaneous. If you are an American Sailor Moon watcher, I figured I'd tell you, the DIC version sucks and I refuse to think of Amara and Michelle as Haruka and Michiru. I mean, cousins? For christ sakes. They messed this couple up bad and I refuse to use them as "cousins". Yeah, I mean, come on… they were meant to be just as much as Usagi and Mamoru. 


End file.
